Items tagged with Skylake

Today we are going to take a look at Gigabyte’s Z170X-Designare motherboard, one of the company's more recent Socket 1151-based boards for Intel's 6th Generation Skylake-based processors. At first glance this is an unassuming board, at least in terms of its appearance. It features a dark and subdued black PCB with chrome highlights and nothing overly dramatic or gaudy. Yet for the sub-$250 price tag, this motherboard is loaded up with a strong array of cutting edge technologies. Among them is support for Intel Thunderbolt 3 across the board’s USB Type-c connection on the back I/O. This...Read more...

Asus is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand this year. The manufacturer launched its ROG line in 2006 and has since developed a wide range of gaming products under the brand, including some monstrous gaming notebooks like the one we'll be showing you here. With the arrival of NVIDIA’s Pascal architecture this summer, the hulking systems are getting a shot in the arm, so we brought Asus’ flagship mobile gaming machine, the ROG G752VS XB78K, in house to see what you get when you go big. The efficiency of the Pascal architecture has made for mobile GPUs that are...Read more...

We have another premium Z170-based motherboard on the test bench today, by way of MSI. The MSI Z170A Gaming M9 ACK motherboard is the company’s top end gaming board for use with Intel 6th Generation Skylake-based Core series processors. The MSI Z170A Gaming M9 is packed with a host of premium features aimed at improving and enhancing your experience. Like most gaming enthusiast boards, this one also commands top dollar, but still manages to ring in $100 shy of the wallet-busting ASUS Z170 ROG Maximus VIII we previously reviewed. Some of the more notable features on this motherboard include a built-in...Read more...

A good rule of thumb when purchasing a gaming laptop is to buy one with the fastest GPU you can afford. Unlike desktop PCs, you usually can't rip out the graphics adapter and upgrade to something faster (not in most cases, anyway), so when that once shiny and fast laptop starts feeling a little sluggish, you're looking at dialing down in-game settings until you've saved enough scratch to buy a new laptop. That's an expensive proposition (it's called throwing the baby out with the bath water), but if gaming on the go is what you're after, you don't have much choice in the matter.That's still the...Read more...

As longtime enthusiasts, we tend to get most excited for the latest, big, bad, benchmark-busting specimens of PC hardware to hit the lab. However, there’s something about ultra-small form factor devices that’s intriguing as well. The focus on power efficiency and performance-per-watt from virtually all semi-conductor manufacturers over the last few years has enabled some pretty impressive hardware in fairly tiny form factors, and it’s now possible to have a fully-functional – and rather quick – desktop PC that literally fits in the palm of your hand.Take the Gigabyte Brix S (model number BSi5HT-6200)...Read more...

Microsoft set off a nuclear blast in the PC enthusiast community this past January when it announced that it would cut off support for Intel Skylake-based machines running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 on July 17th, 2017. This was ostensibly a move to force more users to upgrade to Windows 10, or else face the possibility of losing access to security updates. The folks in Redmond, Washington justified the move at the time, citing the “advanced” age of the operating systems. Microsoft did, however, give some of its top OEM partners a reprieve, exempting select machines from its banhammer. Needless...Read more...

CybertronPC is hoping to hit a sweet spot for gamers with its new 14-inch laptop, the CLX Osiris 14. The system is light and slim for a gaming laptop, but it packs an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M and Intel Skylake quad-core CPU under its hood, so this machine is clearly not messing around. The Osiris 14 is a member of CybertronPC’s CLX family, which is so decidedly different than CybertronPC’s other product offerings, that the line has its own website. If you visit CybertronPC.com, you’ll need to choose the CLX site to find the Osiris 14. It’s not unusual for PC makers to create or buy distinct...Read more...

The Alienware brand is as venerable a name as any in the gaming space. As Alienware celebrates over twenty years in business, its computers have become instantly recognizable thanks to distinctive, out-of-this-world styling, and science-fiction references. Dell purchased Alienware in 2006 to complement its own competing line of XPS-branded gaming machines. However, Dell has kept a largely hands-off approach, allowing Alienware to grow its own business and continue meeting consumer's expectations. So far, it has served both brands well. Alienware currently maintains three desktop families from the...Read more...

Acer has a new laptop line for small and medium sized business professionals looking for a thin and light solution that blends style with modern technology. It's the new TravelMate X3 series, the first of which is the TravelMate X349 bound in an brushed aluminum chassis that measures less 0.7 inches thin and weighs just 3.3 pounds. Underneath the hood you'll find Intel's 6th Generation Core processor technology based on Skylake powering the 14-inch Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) In-Plane Switching (IPS) display. It also boasts up to 8GB of DDR4 memory and up to 512GB of solid state drive storage, along...Read more...

In addition to being lots of fun, LAN parties also afford hardcore gamers and enthusiasts a forum to show off their rigs. Dusty, ho-hum home systems are the norm, of course, but there are also some modded systems, decked out with custom cooling, lighting and paint jobs. And, of course, there are the high-end, boutique-built gaming systems as well.Sporting slick cases and the latest hardware, custom gaming PCs always stand out, but they are usually huge beasts that aren’t meant to be carried around regularly. That’s where iBuypower’s Revolt 2 comes in. Designed to deliver head-turning looks and...Read more...

Apple hoped to revolutionize the thin and light category with its 12-inch MacBook in early 2015. Not everyone was convinced, however, given the notebook’s meager performance, single USB-C port that was used both for charging and expansion, and $1,299 entry point. The 2016 update didn’t move the bar much further, which is giving PC manufacturers the perfect opportunity to take shots at Apple’s premium notebook. That’s where Asus comes into play with its new ZenBook 3, which is a prime example of “Anything you can do I can better.” The ZenBook 3 measures in at just 11.9 millimeters thick, undercutting...Read more...

Hewlett-Packard is struttin’ its stuff in the ultrabook class with the brand new EliteBook 1030, which slots in nicely between the lower-end EliteBook Folio 1020 and the range-topping EliteBook 1040. In fact, the EliteBook 1030 is actually based on the 12.2-inch CNC-machined aluminum body of the EliteBook Folio 1020, but ditches the 12.5-inch display and thick side bezels in favor of a 13.3-inch edge-to-edge display. That display is covered in Corning Gorilla Glass for added protection and can be configured with an optional QHD+ (3200x1800) screen resolution — a 1920x1080 display is standard. Under...Read more...

ASUS is expanding its ROG Strix Series with a two new products, the most important of which is the first laptop to bare the Strix name: the GL502. Accompanying the new gaming laptop is the ROG Strix Wireless gaming headset, which is the perfect companion accessory for gamers. But let’s get the most exciting product out of the way first. The ROG Strix GL502 is a 15.4-inch class gaming notebook that is available with either Full HD (1920x1080) or 4K Ultra HD display (3840X2160) options — both feature IPS panels, 178-degree viewing angles and non-glare coatings. The displays can be powered by up to...Read more...

Update 4/26/2016: We've refreshed our battery life test suite for this review and have new, more real-world metrics to share on page 8. When Dell launched its updated XPS 13 notebook with an Infinity Edge display that squeezes a 13 inch IPS panel into essentially a 12-inch frame, it was met with universal praise for its unique mechanical design advantages and premium build quality. In fact, it was so well-received that many of you, upon seeing our review, almost immediately started asking if Dell would follow-up with the same sort of revamp for their 15-inch XPS 15 line as well. Dell apparently...Read more...